In warm/hot weather we request people be mindful of how they dress when attending functions at the temple. Full length pants and loose fit clothing that covers the shoulders are requested. Please do not attend in short-shorts or tank tops.

Please also be aware that bare-feet are not permitted in the temple, so you should bring your own socks or indoor slippers to wear.

The reason for this: The Temple is a functioning monastery and the focus of the activities is spiritual development, with minimal distractions.

WHY SHOULD WE MEDITATE?

Meditation helps minimize and eliminate negative emotions and thoughts by teaching us how to let go.

All negative emotions happen unconsciously, so by doing meditation, we can start to become conscious of all these emotions and learn to how have greater influence over the thoughts that we think.

Our thoughts are very powerful and have this relation to our individual lives:

A thought becomes a word, a word can become an action, actions form into habits, habits define our character, And character, is our destiny.

Seated silent mediation is an excellent way to observe our thoughts and by doing so we can have influence over them.

We all have "monkey mind" as the Buddha called it, thoughts swinging from one thing to the next.

Our intention when meditating is to quiet constant thinking that can get in the way of finding understanding, insight and wisdom in our lives.